In recent years there has been an ever increasing awareness and, along with it, a growing concern about certain environmental conditions affecting man's health and his feeling of well being. This includes the threat of man made pollution as well as the effects of such natural phenomena as sun spot activity and certain well known winds on man.
The so called Great Winds of the Earth include, among others, the Alphine Foehn, The Sirocco, the Simoon, the Khamsin and the Marmatan of Africa, the Mistral of Provence, the Boras of the Adriatic, the karaburan of the Gobi and the Chinook and Santa Ana of North America. These winds are dreaded by the local inhabitants not so much for their physical destructive forces as for their demoralizing effect on the psychological and physiological states of man. Accounts and statistical data concerning the frequency of these winds' related atmospheric disturbances and their relationship to hospital admissions, suicides, crime rates, etc., are overwhelmingly in support of this link between man and environment.
Predominance of positive air ions is believed to be detrimental to health while clinical evidence indicates that negative ions are beneficial. The evidence in support of this belief is overwhelming. Recent medical research has shown that an overproduction of the biochemical Serotonin in the blood causes biophysiological as well as psychological disorders in animals and men alike. Similar effects have been observed from exposure to a heavy concentration of positive ions. In both cases relief has been achieved by the inhalation of negative ions.
The Great Winds of the Earth all have one thing in common. They all denude the air of moisture and most importantly, cause air ion imbalance. This, in turn, is believed to be the principal causes of the winds' detrimental effects on man.
Much has been written since the turn of the century about the biological and psychological effects produced by positive and negative ion concentrations in the atmosphere.
As reported by the Journal of the Franklin Institute in 1936 (Article by Lewis R. Koller, Ph.D. entitled "Ionization of the Atmosphere and its Biological Effects"), experiments conducted by Caspari in 1902 indicated mountain sickness could be ascribed to high values of ion content. The same article reports that Sokoloff in 1903 correlated his rheumatism with exceptionally high values of the ion content in the air which he observed in the caucasus. These observations and experiments were followed by the work of Dessauer who conducted extensive studies of the effects of ion concentrations on bodily functions such as blood pressure and respiration.
Dessauer found that positive ions increased blood pressure and the rate of respiration while negative ions produced the opposite effects. Positive ions produced feelings of fatigue, dizziness, headaches, roaring in the ears, nausea and the like while negative ions produced exhilaration and a general feeling of well being. Most striking, however, was the discovery of the apparent therapeutic effects of ionized air upon persons suffering from a group of diseases including high blood pressure, rheumatisim, gout, neuritis and neuralgia, acute and chronic bronchitis, cardial and bronchial asthma and heart and arterial diseases.
The October 1952 issue of the same journal carried an article by Thomas L. Martin, Jr. (Climate Control through Ionization) which reported ties betweein ionization levels and psychiatric disorders. This article also reported that negatively ionized air had been found to greatly inhibit the growth of transplanted tumors in rats and mice.
These studies continue to the present day as indicated by still more recent articles on the subject including an IEEE paper, "New Advances in Parapsychology," by James B. Beal for the 1974 IEEE International Convention and Exposition of March 26-29, 1974. Beal delves still further into the effects of electrical phenomena including ionic conditions on the functioning of the human body.
By the 1960's, there was enough general acceptance of the importance of these effects to have encouraged commercial ventures involving the development and production of ion generating equipment. An article in the Jan. 23, 1960 issue of Business Week reported that equipment for negative ion generation was being offered by Emerson Electric and Michael Electric of New Haven, Connecticut. Philco started selling its Ionitron as an added feature of its air conditioning equipment to aid victims of hay fever and other allergies. Emerson had introduced an ionization unit employing radioactive tritum. Michael Electric incorporated an ionization unit in its air purifier. Westinghouse, G.E. and Carrier were well along in the development of ionization equipment. Some of these manufacturers employed ultraviolet lamps which released electrons from aluminum foil.
While such interest continues to the present time, the widespread use of such devices hs not yet been realized, perhaps because the generating equipment heretofore available has been either too expensive or too prone to constitute a safety hazard in some aspect of its use. The beneficial results claimed in the references are undoubtedly a result of the improved environment through negative ionization. The purpose of this invention is directed to improving indoor environmental living conditions and not its therapeutic effect, if any.
A number of methods have been proposed in the literature for the production of ions. Dessauer gave the following list:
X-rays; PA1 Ultra-violet; PA1 High voltage brush discharge between needle points; PA1 High frequency; PA1 Flames; PA1 Incandescent alkalais and metals.